Canton Church Serves Up Lenten Feast

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — Crab cakes, coddies, salads and a whole lot more. It’s all part of a major fundraising effort at a Canton church.

Ron Matz has more on a 75-year-old tradition and the St. Casimir Coddie Crew.

The coddies and crab cakes are ready. Volunteers are cooking up a storm at St. Casimir School.

“This is our major fund raiser of the school year. We make crab cakes, coddies, potato salad, macaroni salad. Parents bring in cakes to sell, too,” said Maryann Chorabik, St. Casimir Church. “On Friday we fry. We get here at two o’clock in the morning. We’ll be frying until about 9 this morning.”

Folks come from all over to buy the delicious Lenten food.

“All of our parishioners and our community members come down and faithfully buy from us week after week. That makes our program successful because without their support it would not happen,” said Laura Matoska, St. Casimir parent. “We have the Wilmer Eye Clinic, the 1st Mariner tower. We have guys who come over from the Dundalk Marine Terminal and they take boxes of food. We even have people who come all the way from Pennsylvania.”

It’s a life lesson with a special recipe.

“It’s all made with love. That’s the most important ingredient. We’re very dedicated to the program and really put our hearts into it to make it successful,” said Matoska.

“It’s all volunteer. Some of the parents take off from work. This is our way of helping the school. And the students come too. They beg us to come and it teaches them a sense of community,” said Maryann Chorabik.

“It means I get to help my school raise money for new stuff, new computers, new textbooks and stuff like that,” said Michael Chorabik, student at St. Casimir’s and volunteer.

It’s estimated they will sell at least 1,000 crab cakes and at least 2,000 coddies.

Ron Matz is an Emmy award-winning reporter who joined the Eyewitness News team in 1993.
During that time, Ron has covered some of the biggest stories in Baltimore. including Pope John Paul II's visit to Baltimore in October 1995, Hurricane Isabel...